Living Thrifty: Adventures in Grocery Shopping

Here’s a handful of ways I’m keeping my grocery budget down.

1. Grocery Store Cards

Everyone knows you can save money by getting your grocery store’s rewards card.

Here's mine.

But I really maximize on the card’s saving power by being fully committed. There is no payoff for brand loyalty. I surrender to the will of my supermarket. I become obsessive about only buying discounted items. It’s a good thing.

I saved almost $5 off my $20 grocery bill today
by shopping carefully with my card.

2. Buying in Bulk

This 42-ounce canister of oatmeal was much cheaper per ounce than the smaller sizes. I also bypassed the Quaker brand for the generic. And I got a discount with my rewards card. Savings upon savings upon savings!!

3. Dented Cans and Day-Old Bread

I’m never bashful about browsing the clearance racks. You can usually score savings of 50-75% off.

These cherry turnovers are a sweet and sticky treat at $3.49.

But they're twice as delicious when they're half the price!*

*Your results may vary.

4. Special Deals

I’m always on the look-out for new ways to save. Today I found this cereal with a full mail-in rebate. That’s a $5 box of cereal for the price of a postage stamp!

5. A Caveat

It’s easy to get carried away. I must constantly remind myself, it doesn’t count as saving if you buy things you aren’t going to use. A 2-for-1 deal on bread is no deal at all if I end up throwing one loaf away.

What am I missing? How do you save?

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My favorite thing about bargain hunting is that grocery shopping is always an adventure. Steadfastly adhering to your usual grocery list feels like a chore, but I get to go to the supermarket and explore.

There’s always something new on sale, something exciting amongst yesterday’s baked goods. By hunting down the best deals of the day, I’m constantly discovering new foods, new brands, new flavors. And isn’t that the best deal of all?

Reality Check

I paid my rent today, which means I'm officially at the Y for another week. So that's a big "hurrah" for the blog, although a less enthusiastic "hurrah" for me getting my life in order.

I’ve been viewing my time at the Y as kind of a fun adventure. But um... I guess for some people it’s not. Most of the residents are older men who are probably well past the point of "this is just until I get my life in order".

Today I went to the bathroom to wash my adorable new dishes from Goodwill.

They're teal-gray square stoneware with rounded corners.

I was joined at the sink by a man with a long beard. He was also washing some dishes – a plastic bucket that he was using as a bowl, and a broken plate. Literally at least a third of the plate was missing. (I wish I had a picture of it so you would know I'm not being hyperbolic, but I suspect photographing this man doing his dishes would be a faux-pas.)

I was using my little bottle of dish soap, a dishcloth, and a friendly orange sponge. He rinsed his bucket and semi-dish with water, then rubbed them with his flannel shirt.

I had been imagining myself as super-poor, as I browsed Goodwill for the most awesome full set of dishes they had. This guy can’t afford anything close to that.

But you should definitely check out the dishes at Goodwill – some really fun bargains to be had.

Virtual Tour: The Chamber of Horrors

Today I’m going to take you inside the scariest place at the Y: the bathroom. The bathrooms are shared by the entire floor. There’s no telling what we’ll find.

Sinks laid out in eerie rows. I’m not sure what goes on when I’m not looking, but everything is always wet here. Mirrors, counters, floors – all dripping with water. At least we hope it’s water.

(Click images to view full size.)

A long, winding corridor of toilet stalls. There’s always something horrible happening here. I venture this way as infrequently as possible. I’ve heard some men have never returned.


And the beating heart of the beast, the shower room. With two, count them – TWO showers side by side, and not so much as a curtain between them.


Okay, the bathroom actually looks more like this:

But it feels as scary as the other pictures.

And fortunately, everybody seems to be on the same page about not wanting to shower together. We all just wait our turn like normal, modest human beings.

One last treat (or trick?):


I don’t know what the hell that means, but it’s very suspicious.

I Invented This Really Good Sandwich

I don’t have a refrigerator. Because I live at the Y. So I buy a lot of canned foods, including tuna fish. But I don’t have any mayonnaise, because of the no fridge. So I replaced the mayo with black beans.


You know, because beans come canned in that thick bean juice. I just piled the beans and tuna fish on there, as much as the bread could hold. One can of each is enough for two heaping sandwiches, and then I still had black beans leftover for a side of black beans.

I know it sounds gross, but the beans really take the edge off the raw tuna fish, and the tuna adds a salty zip to the beans.

This meal is:
1. Tasty
2. Fridge-less
3. Very Filling
4. Way Healthy
5. Cheap (less than $2)

Which means it's like the perfect “Living at the YMCA” meal. If you have any great “Living at the YMCA” meals of your own, leave them in the comments. I’ll try them out and feature them on the blog. You’ll be doing me a big favor, and you'll be like YMCA-blog-famous. I'm especially interested in hearing about things I can use instead of jelly on a peanut butter sandwich.

P.S. Friend-of-the-blog Heather suggested adding avocado to this sandwich. I love that idea. It would raise the price a little, but also might raise the tastiness to new extremes.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

My bus home was so late last night. For some reason the buses get terribly off-schedule late at night when, theoretically, there should be fewer stops and traffic delays. But if my bus hadn’t been late, I never would have met Igor.

Igor sat next to me at the bus stop and said, “I’ve met you before.”

“No,” I said.

“Oh, you white boys all look the same. You know that?”

We became fast friends, Igor and I. Maybe because he kept shouting his own name (“ee-GOR!”) over and over. I like that in a person. He was drumming on the bus stop benches and singing a song in Spanish.

“Do you understand Spanish?” he asked me.

“Only a very little bit,” I said.

“This song says: I’ll forget you, I’ll forget you,” he explained.

He was probably about 50, probably Mexican, and definitely wearing aviator sunglasses in the dead of night. He extended his hand to me, but when I reached out to shake it he squeezed my hand tight and clutched it against his chest.

“Your hands are cold,” he said.

“Yeah, I’m freezing.”

“My heart is warm. I’m a good man.”

“I believe you,” I said. Satisfied, he released my hand.

He asked if I ever feed the ducks. I said I don’t - I have enough trouble feeding myself. Igor feeds the ducks. (“They like me and I like them.”)

“What’s your purpose?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What’s your purpose in life? You gotta know what your purpose is.”

“I’m still young,” was my answer. “What’s your purpose?”

“Have fun. Meet people.”

Igor (“ee-GOR!”) wanted to know where I was going, where I live, what I do for work. Igor doesn’t work.

“What do you do with your time?” I asked.

“Good question.” He grinned. “Talk to you.”

We talked about nothing for a very long time. “What’s your purpose?” he kept asking me, over and over. “What’s your purpose? What’s your purpose?”

The bus finally arrived, almost an hour late. Igor got off at the very next stop, a distance it would have taken ten minutes to walk at most. When he left, I suddenly felt so sad. I don’t know why. It only lasted a moment, then the feeling evaporated as quickly as it came.

Something I Seen: Hammer Time

I don’t have a car. (I live at the Y – do you think I can afford a car?) So I spend a lot of time walking around LA. Something I Seen posts are pictures I take while out and about.

Here’s something I seen:

(Click to view full size.)

I’m amazed by this ad campaign. How much do you want to go to the Hammer after seeing this? If you’re me, a whole lot. Because like, what?

Living Thrifty: The Gold Star Goldmine

This is going to be another regular feature. I live at the Y – I’m obviously not made of money. Living Thrifty posts will feature special tricks for living on a highly limited budget.

Recently I went to a place called Gold Star. They serve burgers. I was there looking for a job (no such luck). I was also very hungry, and these burgers smelled amazing. So I bought one. And I made it a combo with fries and a soda because the cashier made it sound so good.

It was a moment of extreme weakness. Seriously, I do not need to be paying $7 for a burger and fries and a soda. But I hadn’t had breakfast that day. That’s a mini-tip for you: eat breakfast. It will save you money later when you go to a burger place for a job and end up with a cheeseburger combo.

But the trip to Gold Star did prove fruitful in the end, because Gold Star leaves plastic utensils and sugar packets out for anyone to come along and fill up their backpack.


And I did.

I needed the utensils a lot. The night before I had used my bare hand to scoop peanut butter out of the jar and smear it on bread. That’s gross.

I didn’t need the sugar. I don’t even have a use for it. I got greedy. :(

Virtual Tour: The Best Part of My Room

I’m going to try to have some regular features on the blog. This is one of them. Virtual Tour posts are your exclusive look inside the Glendale Y, complete with pictures and text and everything!

So here it is, the best part of my room. The balcony!

(Click images to view them full-size.)

See? I told you it was nice here. My room literally has a balcony. The glass doors let in lots of beautiful sunlight, and I have an awesome view of some buildings and some hills and stuff.


At night, there’s this fake Eiffel Tower lit up nearby, so I can pretend I’m living in a cozy flat in Paris.

(This is the best shot I could get of the Fake Eiffel Tower, but you get the idea.)

Yeah, my life is pretty fabulous.

Space

Two days ago I moved into a room at the YMCA of Glendale, CA. I’m going to use this space to chronicle my time spent here. It may be two weeks, it may be two years. We’ll see. Surely it won’t be two years. If I’m still here in two years... we can’t even think about that.

A lot of people (my friends and family) have been confused upon hearing that I live at the YMCA. So let’s get the ball rolling by tackling some myths about living at the Y.



1. Yes, you can live at the Y.

I feel like this should be perfectly obvious when I say “I’m living at the Y,” but I guess it needs to be reiterated. Yes, you can live at the Y. Not at every Y, and it’s only available to men.

2. No, it’s not a homeless shelter.

I pay money to live here. It’s inexpensive and you pay nightly or weekly, in cash. There’s no lease or anything, so it’s nice and easy to leave when you’re ready.

3. No, I don’t sleep on a cot in a gym.

Variations:
No, I don’t sleep on a cot by the pool.
No, I don’t sleep in a crowded room of bunk beds.
No, it’s not like the New Orleans Superdome post-Katrina.

I have my own room. It’s actually nice. I do share a bathroom with the rest of my floor, so it’s kind of like having a single in your college dorm.

4. No, I’m not sad here.

I’m actually very happy here. I have a space, which is not trivial. It’s a terribly important thing, having one’s own space. It’s not my dream home, but it suits me just fine right now.

So far the biggest problem is that I have the Village People stuck in my head all day, every day. I remain hopeful that this will diminish in time.